YEREVAN. – The tax authorities of Armenia have returned 7 billion drams to the budget in 2020, compared to the 6 billion drams in 2019—and increase of 2.1 percent. Vahan Charkhifalakyan, head of the Investigation and Operative-Search Department of the State Revenue Committee (SRC), told this to a press conference on Friday.

He informed that the SRC initiated 622 criminal cases, in which the damage to the state amounted to 21 billion drams, compared to a loss of 20.6 billion drams in 2019 with 367 criminal cases.

As per Charkhifalakyan, the number of criminal cases in the tax sphere increased by about 70 percent in 2020. "In 2020, 255 more criminal cases were initiated than in 2019. (…). The increase in drug and narcotic smuggling is due to the fact that postal deliveries have increased during the [COVID-19] pandemic, as well as the more effective work of tax authorities," he said.

The SRC official added that in 2020, a total of 206 tax crimes were registered against economic activity, whereas in 2019, a total 106 such cases were revealed; that is, last year the respective increase was more than 94 percent. "Work is also being done to check the accuracy of the prices of goods imported from the EEU and the data on their sale in Armenia. The agency pays special attention to sectoral oversight, including in the areas of construction, trade, and mineral exploitation. In 2020, air transportation and the IT sector have become new directions of sectoral oversight,” concluded the head of the SRC department.